Man embarks on solo beauty spot clean up

Dan Cain

A MAN has taken it upon himself to single-handedly tidy an area of natural beauty.

Fed-up with the amount of litter blotting the landscape on Highdown Hill, Jan Antonowicz, 53, of Hangleton Lane, has embarked on a one-man mission to highlight the issue.

Mr Antonowicz can be regularly seen collecting rubbish on the National Trust-owned land.

Once he has gathered a sufficient amount he transfers it to one of three thresholds onto council-owned land in a bid to display the litter in one condensed area and encourage visitors to clean up their act.

“I’m totally sick of the amount of material there,” said Mr Antonowicz. “I don’t think people want to see it. They are a bit blinkered.

“It’s a job that’s really worth doing. I think it’s about time the level of protection was raised. It’s on the edge of the town. Shouldn’t it be a showpiece?”

The success of his work is currently clear to see, according to Mr Antonowicz.

“For me to walk up the hill now it’s got a pristine look to it. It looks lovely and as it should be.”

The land Mr Antonowicz has been transferring the rubbish to falls under the remit of Worthing Borough Councillor Keith Sunderland.

Following a phone call between the pair, Mr Sunderland has begun working towards improving the litter problem on Highdown Hill.

Ideas put forward by the councillor include getting community service volunteers to tidy the area and encouraging a clean up operation via online community forum Streetlife.

Mr Sunderland said it was great that Mr Antonowicz had contacted him.

He said: “I pointed out to him that the people inconvenienced by his protest are not the people who leave things up there. It’s probably people who go partying in the evening it’s not the dog walkers in the day.

“It does upset me that we need people doing bizarre things to make the system work. Normal protests just sometimes don’t work.”

A police community support officer has warned Mr Antonowicz that his actions could lead to prosecution. However, Mr Antonowicz said he would like to see the council and police ‘do a u-turn’.